Partnership to Existing Macrofungi Collection Consortium--Digitization of an Important Regional Collection of Macrofungi at the Pringle Herbarium
Digitization PEN: Partnership to Existing Macrofungi Collection Consortium--Digitization of an Important Regional Collection of Macrofungi at the Pringle Herbarium
Project Summary
The University of Vermont's Pringle Herbarium (VT) will join the Macrofungi Collection Consortium (MaCC), a Thematic Collections Network (TCN) dedicated to increased understanding of mushrooms and their allies (macrofungi). The Consortium includes 35 institutions' botanical gardens, natural history museums and universities from 24 states. For this project, all 3,000 macrofungi specimens at the Pringle Herbarium will be digitized, and the resulting data and images will be released for worldwide computer access through the MaCC's online MycoPortal and the iDigBio shared portal. The macrofungi collections at the Pringle Herbarium will provide a unique focus on the macrofungi of northern New England and significant representation from the early, poorly documented period from 1840-1910.
Adding these collections to enhance the Macrofungi Consortium will increase the research possible on the impact of macrofungi on their host plants over time and space and how these changes impact human health and economic enterprise. University of Vermont undergraduates will perform the digitization and imaging and in the process increase their understanding of research on biological diversity. The Pringle Herbarium will engage the local community of macrofungi enthusiasts with mushroom identification workshops to stimulate amateur interest in the impact of fungi on human affairs. This award is made as part of the National Resource for Digitization of Biological Collections through the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections program and all data resulting from this award will be available through the national resource (iDigBio.org).
Current Research
Not available at this time
Project Leadership
Project Sponsor: University of Vermont & State Agricultural College
Principal Investigators (PIs): David Barrington (PI)
NSF Award Number
Project Website
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Project Collaborators
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